Thursday, March 12, 2015

Thursday's Tumbles and Stumbles: The Lump

I'm happy and relieved to report no tumbles or stumbles in Murpheydom this week. At least nothing major, that is. So now a story...

"Honey, can you come check my back for me? I feel a painful lump back there and it's hard," my beloved asked me this weekend.

He's only has about 10% muscle mass and the rest is just skin over his skeleton. His wrist is less than six inches now. How do I know? The breadth of my left pinky to my thumb tip out stretched is six inches. Well, I can wrap my hand around his wrist and overlap my pinky finger with my thumb.

But I digress...
I walked over to his bed thinking now what? I was mentally running through the would of-could of-should of ignoring my own advice of don't borrow trouble. Don't I already have enough trouble in my life?

Had he been bitten by some creepy crawly? Had it been after the aide and I changed his clothes the day before? We both do a through skin check on him. Could it have festered into an abscess so quick?

Either way it had to be drained and dressed. Depending on how big it was, I might even have to call the weekend duty nurse for a different antibiotic. Maybe whatever bit him was still in the bed with him? I'd have to catch it and kill it after seeing exactly what it was so I'd know how to treat my hubby.

I unbuttoned his shirt sleeves and his shirt. I'm inching it off him in case whatever bit him was still in his shirt. Nothing. No redness that I could see. "Reach your hand back and show me where it hurts?"
He did and I'm searching all around the area. I'm poking and prodding none to gently looking for a bite or abscess. Nothing! I asked him to point it out again and he did.

Then it dawned on me that the lump that he was feeling was his vertebrae! When I told him he just shook his head in disbelief. So I was borrowing trouble for nothing. I taped abdominal pads up his spine so it formed an upside down "T" from his hips up to try to prevent the bones from breaking through the skin. The added padding also makes him comfortable.

So no creepy crawlies, no abscess just care and comfort issues. I'm in a holding pattern waiting for the 17th when I have my next dry needling. My Botox should be kicking in about then too. So it should be interesting to see what happens.

My arm hasn't drawn up into the usual pinned against my chest position. In fact, it is still resting comfortably on my leg. Yippee! I've had one episode of spasticity this week and it lasted an hour. I've had no reaction to my reduced amount of Botox either. So I've been good. Still no more voluntary movement of my foot either. Shucks! Not that I haven't tried but the muscle tightness is preventing it. So I'm waiting on St Paddy's Day for more miracles. So with the luck of the Irish behind me and faith in the Father holding me up, I'm literally waiting on pins and needles.